The parliamentary leader of the PSD, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, referred to the party leadership the decision to request the hearing of the PGR, denying that there had been any devaluation of the case of searches of former President Rui’s headquarters and home Rio.
At the end of an almost three-hour meeting of the parliamentary group – extraordinarily planned at the request of a group of 30 deputies – Miranda Sarmento was questioned about the requests of deputies such as Maló de Abreu, André Coelho Lima or Paulo Mota Pinto that the PSD is considering hearing in parliament the Attorney General of the Republic, Lucília Gago.
“This is a decision to be made by the national leadership of the PSD, the Standing Committee will meet tomorrow morning [quarta-feira] and will make a decision on this,” he replied, saying that he would retain his personal position for that hard core leadership meeting in which he sits.
Miranda Sarmento stressed that it had always been his intention to convene a meeting of the court after last Wednesday the judicial police mobilized about 100 inspectors for a series of 20 house searches, including at the home of former PSD president Rui Rio and at the national headquarters of this party, in an investigation conducted by the Regional Investigation and Criminal Procedure Division (DIAP) of Lisbon, on suspicion of crimes of embezzlement and abuse of power.
“This meeting was very useful, it allowed the deputies to express their views on a very serious situation, namely that the judiciary had crossed a line, carried out searches that went beyond the judicial mandate and revealed a range of sensitive political information. about the PSD,” he stated.
When asked about some deputies’ criticism that the theme had been devalued by the party leadership, the parliamentary leader rejected this view.
“The PSD has by no means officially responded via a letter to the PGR on Thursday morning – the searches ended at 4 a.m. – and since then the PSD president, secretary general and two vice presidents have spoken. ” he said.
For Miranda Sarmento, in all these interventions, “the condemnation of what happened was vehement and the criticism of the disproportionality of resources quite strong”.
“I do not believe that we have not reacted in a timely manner or that we have not reacted,” he stressed, saying that he “understood the deputies’ concern” about this matter, which “should concern the entire democratic regime”.
At the meeting, there were several voices who considered the “timing” of the bank’s response too late and called on the party not to devalue the issues of justice in its action.
On Wednesday evening, the President of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, will participate in the dinner of the PSD parliamentary group at the end of the legislative session, on the day when this theme will also be discussed in the Leaders’ Conference, in the morning, on the initiative of the President of the Assembly of the Republic.
Source: DN
